This invention relates generally to the door latching mechanism of a motor vehicle occupant entry door, and more particularly to counterbalanced, pivoting masses incorporated in the door latching mechanism.
The door paddle (sometimes called a pull bar or handle), located on the outside of the door, is manually gripped and pivoted to unlatch and open the door so that an occupant can enter the vehicle. During an impact event, the impact force, which can come from any direction, produces inertial forces acting on the components of the door handle assembly and has a tendency to unlatch the door. As a result of an impact event, the highest inertia force is applied to the door handle paddle and can be directed such that the inertia force may unlatch and open the door.
To reduce this tendency, a conventional handle design uses a high spring torque, which requires high unlatching effort to open the door, and a counter balanced mass located on top of a bell crank. The high unlatching effort produces the perception of low quality design.
If a door handle mechanism has a counter balanced mass on the top of the bell crank, the mass has the rotational axis perpendicular to the pull bar axis, and the inertial load from the pull bar cannot be balanced entirely. The conventional design cannot be tuned to have an inertia load capacity (usually referred to as a high G-load capacity) due to rotational motion of the mass.
A need exists in the industry for a door whose handle components have a high G-load capacity, so that the door remains latched during impact. Preferably the door handle components would require low unlatching effort, thereby indicating high quality design and manufacture.